I thought i'd post a Frequently Asked Questions about Macs and Flash, as there's a regular flow of already-answered queries coming in...


<p align="center">Things to make sure of before you post:
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| 1. Check the version of the Flash Player/Plugin you are using. |
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Answered Questions
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<a href="#1">1. How do I burn a Macintosh compatible CD with autorun for my projector?</a>

<a href="#2">2. How do I burn a PC compatible CD with autorun?</a>

<a href="#3">3. How do I burn an Autorun Hybrid CD (cross-platform compatible)?</a>

<a href="#4">4. My PC code won't work on a Mac</a>

<a href="#5">5. How do I open a document with an FS Command?</a>

<a href="#6">6. What is a HQX file?</a>

<a href="#7">7. I have the right version Flash Player/Plugin, why doesn't my movie work?</a>

<a href="#8">8. How can I make my windows open the correct size on a Mac?</a>

<a href="#9">9. I'm a PC Users, how can I burn a Macintosh CD that autoruns?</a>



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<a name="1"></a>Q1. How do I burn a Macintosh compatible CD with autorun for my projector?

A. You need a copy of Toast for Mac, this CD burning software will let you do this.

First, create a disk image/partition for your CD, choose "create temporary partition" from the Utilities menu.
Copy your files onto the temporary partition.
Next, go back into toast and choose "Mac volume" from the Other menu. Click the select button, then click your temporary partition in the list. Finally, click the Autostart checkbox, choose your projector (on your temporary partition).

[These instructions are for Toast 5, but the same applies to Toast 4, just some menus/menu items are in different places]

<a name="2"></a>Q2. How do I burn a PC compatible CD with autorun?

A. For PCs you need to create a file called "Autorun.inf".

First of all though, you should download BBEdit lite from http://www.barebonessoftware.com/ (it's free) to create the file, SimpleText won't work.
In BBEdit create a new file, it should look like this:

[autorun]
start=projector.exe

Where projector.exe is the name of your PC projector.
Next, across the top of your window you will see an icon that looks like a small file, click this icon and choose DOS from the list.
Finally save your file as Autorun.inf.
Next, in Toast choose ISO 9660 as the format (assuming this is a PC only disc). Add the files you want burnt onto the CD including the autorun file. It should be in the top level of the CD, not in a folder.

An additional option is the icon attribute, e.g.

[autorun]
start=projector.exe
icon=someicon.ico

This file is the icon used for the CD, icon files must be in Windows icon format. You can't just use a GIF or JPEG. Iconographer http://www.mscape.com/ can produce Windows icon files on a Mac.

<a name="3"></a>Q3. How do I burn an Autorun Hybrid CD (cross-platform compatible)?

A. The above two answers apply to this question.
However, you will have to choose "Custom Hybrid" from the Other Menu, and then for each side of the disc use the same methods as described above.

As a side-note, if you create a temporary partition, copy all your files that both Macs and PCs will use onto this. Then, when choosing you PC data in Toast, choose the files on the partition that you already selected for the mac.
Toast will then write these files only once, but they will be visible on both platforms, saving space on the CD (and time burning). Files that are only for PC, should not be copied onto the partition when you select them, they will then only show up on the PC side, and not the Mac.

<a name="4"></a>Q4. My PC code won't work on a Mac

A. The simple answer is yes it will
Usually the problem is the version of the player/plugin you are using.
It is Very Unlikely that you have written something that Flash can only do on a PC, all the documented functions of Flash work on a Mac. The purpose of Flash was to be cross-platform...
Unless, you are attempting to do something on a Mac that they cannot do, namely:
• Run/open an EXE file, this is a PC application. It cannot run on a Mac.
• Write variables to a file on the Hard Disk. Flash for mac does not have this capability. Until someone writes a 3rd party application that can handle data passed to it from flash, you cannot do this.

<a name="5"></a>Q5. How do I open a document with an FS Command?

A. You can't directly, you need to use applescript

You can only open applications from the standalone Flash Player, being able to do this throught the plugin would be an immense security breach...

Flash player for macintosh can't open documents directly, but it can execute applications with an FS Command.
e.g. fscommand (exec, myapplication);

If you need to open a document specifically, the best way to do this is to create a custom applescript and compile it as an application which flash can then launch.
Copy the following code into Script Editor, found in the Applescript folder in your Apple Extras folder.

Code:
--set the name of the file to open 
property fileName : "thedocument.pdf"
--get the path to the containing folder 
set myPath to (path to me as string)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ":"
set the parentFolder to ¬
	((text items 1 thru -2 of myPath) & "") as string
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
-- find the flash file 
try
	set targetFile to alias (the parentFolder & fileName)
on error
	--ie if there's no  file here by this name, it will quit. 
	return quit
end try
tell application "Finder"
	open file targetFile
end tell
In the second line of the code there is a variable declared called fileName, you need to change the value between the double quotes to the name of your document.
Then choose Save As in Script Editor.
Change the dropdown menu to read "Application" and set the checkboxes so that "Never show splash screen" is checked and "Stay open" is unchecked.
Save your script as a useful name, then put it in the folder with the document you want to open.

Finally, in your flash file enter the fscommand (as shown above) and use the name of your script as the name of the application.

<a name="6"></a>Q6. What is a HQX file?

A. HQX is a form of file encoding, NOT a Mac executable (exe).

Mac files come with two "forks" one holds the data, the other the resources for the file (it's icon, type, creator etc).

hqx is used to store the resources and the data forks of mac files in one file as other filesystems (dos, unix) don't support two forks for a file, so the resource fork gets deleted. .

This can result in file corruption, for example, applications are no longer recognised as applications by macintoshes as they have no resource fork with the information that they are an application.

The PC equivalent is having the suffix (.exe for example) deleted. You then have no way of telling what the file is.

So, a file can be hqx encoded, sent via PCs or Unix machines to another Mac, unencoded and used without any problems as the resource fork with the information about the file has been retained.


<a name="7"></a>Q7. I have the right version Flash Player/Plugin, why doesn't my movie work?

A. You need to increase the memory allocated to the application.

Select the application that is running the flash movie (e.g. Flash Player, Internet Explorer etc.) in the Finder.
Go to the File menu and choose "Get Info".
An information window for the selected application appears, choose memory from the dropdown menu.
Increase the "Preferred Size" box by 1000.
e.g. 800KB --> 1800KB
Depending on the size of your movie, it may need more, but keep the order of magnitude you increase by in the thousands initially.

<a name="8"></a>Q8. How can I make my windows open the correct size on a Mac?

A. Use a piece of JavaScript to adjust the window size for different platfoms.

--Adjust the sizes and window attributes to your taste--

Put this in the Head of your html document:

function platformCheck(){
if (navigator.platform == "Win32"){
window.open('mypage.htm','pagename','toolbar=yes,s crollbars=no,status=yes,width=800,height=600')
} else {
window.open('mypage.htm','pagename','toolbar=yes,s crollbars=no,status=yes,width=785,height=587')
}
}

You can then call the function from somewhere in your html; for example an image that says "Go to Flash site" would have the code placed in it's tag:
< img src="image.jpg" onclick="platformCheck();" alt="Go to Flash site" >< / img >

Or you could resize a window as it loads, using this function in the head of the document:

function resizeMe() {
if (navigator.platform == "Win32"){
self.resizeTo(800,600)
} else {
self.resizeTo(785,587)
}
}

And then in the Body tag of the page:
< Body onload="resizeMe();" >

[Javascript 1.2 or higher is required for this (that's version 4+ browsers, it should work but JavaScript is a really non-cross-browser thing...) so don't rely on it too much, the weird spacing of the tags is to stop them being parsed by the board] - SJT


<a name="9"></a>Q9. I'm a PC User, how can I burn a Macintosh CD that autoruns?

A. Use CDEveryWhere, a Java application that creates cross platform disc images.

You can get CDEveryWhere here: http://www.cdeverywhere.com

Open CDEveryWhere, click the Macintosh tab.
Choose your Macintosh projector (.hqx encoded) and drag it to the Macintosh tab from the Local Files tab.

Right-click and choose 'BinHex' from the menu, then choose 'Decode'.
You should now see your projector file, without the hqx suffix, listed in the Macintosh tab.
The Type field should say APPL (this is the resource fork code for Application), the Creator field will be different depending on which version of Flash you are using.
Next click the Platform tab at the top of the window, move down to the AutoStart for Macintosh section, check the Enable box and choose your projector from the browse dialog box.

Note 1: CDEveryWhere does not burn CDs, it only creates disc images which you then burn to disc using CD writing software, such as Easy CD Creator from http://www.roxio.com/

Note 2: I have NOT burnt any CDs created with this program, i merely downloaded it to write this tutorial. Use it at your own risk!

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I'll add more over time, everyone else post additions as well (or correct me if I'm wrong)...
Thankyou, and goodnight.
[Edited by SJT on 05-01-2002 at 11:28 AM]